IT took just 15 minutes for the Stormont meeting to be convened, an agenda and chairman to be agreed, the discussion to take place and decision unanimously made.
This was a meeting of the journalists covering the multi party talks at Stormont, who mutinied at the prospect of a long winter standing around outside the building waiting for a politician to come out and announce the latest difficulty.
Downtown Radio reporter, Eamonn Mallie, convened the meeting which had been prompted by widespread dissatisfaction with the way resources were being spent on very little, he said. "We're just hanging around endlessly."
It was agreed that cameras and journalists would be present at the talks twice a day, as they convened and in the afternoon, and the politicians could come and talk to them then. Otherwise, the journalists would be in their offices.
Any other business? Well there was the matter of the food. "Move the talks to Dublin. The Department of Foreign Affairs always looks after us very well," was one suggestion. Laughter, but no support for this proposal.
Things were not going so well at the real talks. When they first began on June 10th, it took seven weeks to produce procedural rules to allow the delegates to talk about anything at all. There is still no agreed agenda about what should be discussed.
The main item on yesterday's agenda was the possible exclusion of two of the parties, the UDP and the PUP, for not condemning death threats against fellow loyalists Mr Billy Wright and Mr Alec Kerr. Various politicians emerged from the talks throughout the day generating a flurry of media activity, and stated their positions on this issue.
The styles differed. The UUP deputy leader, Mr John Taylor was, as usual, urbane and when it came to discussing the fringe loyalist parties, condescendingly describing them as "very much a side show". The DUP's Mr Peter Robinson was grim faced and righteous.
The Alliance Party had made its position clear that morning with its leader, Lord Alderdice, saying as he entered Castle Buildings: "Isn't it ironic that Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson are pretending to be the guardians of the rule of law? Here are two jailbirds, who themselves have done time in prison for breaking the law, posturing as protectors of stability and democracy".
They and Sinn Fein have the same agenda, wrecking the talks, he said.
Mr Joe English, of the UDP, was doing his best to hide his frustration: "It is a sorrowful situation that we are bogged down again when progress could be made on many issues." Was there not an irony in the fact that attempts were being made to exclude him and his colleagues, who wanted the talks to progress, in the name of defending people who opposed the talks on the grounds they were betraying the unionist people?
A van load of protesters from Republican Sinn Fein were defeated by the labyrinth of roads around Stormont Castle and Castle Buildings and never arrived at the talks venue.